The State’s Information Technology Investment Policy inviting companies to invest in the IT field in Goa could do with a thumbs up despite the fact that like so many other plans of the Goa government this too has come late, after other States have already wrested the initiative having successfully wooed IT companies. The governments of Goa, successive ones, somehow wake up to opportunity only when they come face-to-face with the success of other States in a particular field. The IT Investment policy is one such example. Such has been Goa’s blinkered vision in the IT sector that the Rajiv Gandhi IT habitat that was initiated and even inaugurated turned into a large real estate scam and the land had to actually be taken back from the allottees at a financial loss to the government. The story this time will hopefully be different.
But, there is one clause in the IT policy, referring to employment that promises companies employing a Goan workforce a reimbursement of 10 per cent of the salaries subject to a ceiling of Rs 80 lakh. This is not the first time that a government has attempted to link industrial subsidies or rebates to employment to locals. Past governments that have attempted this did not meet with much success. One reason why this has not worked is that the government never made any serious efforts to link the education policy with the industrial policy and hence create a workforce that could avail of the employment opportunities. It preferred instead to rest on the statement on paper that industries provide employment to locals, without giving the industries a pool from which to select their talent.
The government must come to terms with how companies work, and they definitely do not function in the manner in which government departments and undertakings do. A policy of reservations in jobs and promotions only due to seniority does not exist in the HR guidelines or rules of a private company, and definitely not in that of an IT company. Today’s companies, especially in the IT field, are professionally managed and administered, and recruitment and promotion comes only on merit and proven track records, where appraisals of employees are conducted on an annual basis and the staff graded accordingly. Companies select employees based on their abilities and not necessarily their geographical location.
To meet the exigent demands of private companies in recruitment, the government has to ensure that its aspiring local workforce, the ones it hopes the companies will pick up, meets the requirements of the companies. The government hopes to turn the State into an ‘animation, visual effects, gaming, comics’ (AVGC) hub. A good plan indeed, as this is an industry that will not pollute the environment. But where is the workforce going to come from? There are no institutions offering AVGC courses in the State and it is expected that the project proponents will groom the locals in these fields. It stands to reason that if a company is getting a trained professional from elsewhere over a local who will have to be trained, the company will opt for the former. The need, therefore, to train youth in fields that will get them jobs in the IT companies is immediate.
The government is hoping that the proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the existing National Institute of Technology (NIT) will meet some of the demands of the IT industry in the State, as courses offered in these do focus on IT. Yet, these institutes of higher learning have to be allowed space and time to grow in the State. Despite existing for four years in the State the NIT does not have a campus of its own and is yet to be allotted land in which to function. The IIT has not yet started and has already suffered a setback as it has missed the tie up for technical support with an American institute.
The IT industry will not wait. If it decides to come to Goa it will do so and, should the talent pool be found lacking, it will bring in its own workforce. The result, like so often in the past, will be lamentations that jobs have gone to non-locals. To avoid this, the government should immediately ensure that institutions offering course in IT and related fields are allowed to set up and are given every possible facility.
